Bangalore to Beaches - By Cycle - Day 1

Date: 25th Dec, 2015
Start: BSK 2nd STG, Bangalore (0070 Hrs)

End: Rangenahalli, Near Lakvalli Dam (2030 Hrs)
Distance: 261 Kms ( Lift - 180 Kms, ByCycle - 81 Kms)
Terrain: Flat

When we have last minute Loki with us, its guranteed to get late. The plan of starting @ 5am didn’t seem practical with Loki. Sunil and Sid were in time, and we waited for Loki to arrive. With last minute packing I had to spare my water bladder. And the most shocking fact that Loki was not carrying a sleeping bag. Assumption is always dangerous in times. God save him in the Malnad cold.  Not planning to look for an alternative for sleeping bag, we quickly started our journey with a sad smile on our family members, except little one, Aaghnee, who did cheer for us.

All Set for the trip

           

Cheer up from Aaghnee

Its already 0700 AM, its too late for tea and early for breakfast. But when on cycle food is the only fuel and will never say no for it.  After the regular 2 Idly-Vada-Tea combination at SLV, we quickly started pedaling towards the Outer Ring Road. It was too late for us to like the Outer Ring Road traffic, but made many jealous by crossing  through the Jam packed traffic in seconds. The chart prepared for the day at SLV was to ride till the Nelamangala Toll Junction, dump all the cycles into a passerby tempo till Bhadravathi and start cycling from the base of the Malnad.

Filling Air

Bikes on tempo

If you ask for help, mostly you will get it. It didn’t take too much time to get lift till Tumkur, along with some fruits from the driver.  Amazing right !!! Lift, Fruits. As a token of appreciation we paid him around Rs 300, and he wished us good luck and our journey continued in Shimoga Road.  Passing through SIT,Tumkuru and the main roads we finally reached the Siddartha Medical college where we found a small hotel to fill our stomach. By now I had realized that Sid was more of traveller type, and never bargained to get him a Roti-Curry meal in rural area of Karnataka. He was very happy with the regular local food available. This gave us little bit of relief for rest of the journey. 

Though we had sexy legs by cycling regularly, it wasn't worth enough to fetch a lift for us. After few requests a Mahindra Bolero offered us to drop till Birur. Not to miss the chance we quickly bumped the cycles inside the pickup van, and neatly packed them with bungee chords and sleeping bags. Bungee Chords and Sleeping bags are very good accessories for this adhoc transport of cycles. These 2 things are every penny worth we bought in Decathlon. The good food, open AC made three of us doze in the back of the truck, and Sid almost slept off on the dashboard of the vehicle. After around 80 minutes of drive we reached Birur junction. It costed us Rs 900 for this drop, a little more than we expected.

2Kgs of Oranges filled our recycle bag, which was a saviour later. By now our destination for today was confirmed to halt at the backwaters of Lakvalli Dam, where I had spent my 2014^th Bday. Enroute we realized Sunil cycle was giving some sound and we stopped to fix the same. We realized the carrier was missing screw on one side. Though the tools helped us to fix the rest, we didnt carry any extra screw. But the extra bottle holder screws of mine came for timely help. After riding for almost 35+ km, it was time to refuel our stomach before we reach the destination. We were able to finish 12 plates of  parota in less than 15 minutes. Hope the hotels people will not ban us from next time. And the total cost was less than a Medium Dominozz Pizza. Are we all over paying for anything we buy in this Concrete Jungle? As Sunil said, every thing is same on the other side its only we have moved so ahead not interested to come back. After quick chat with the locals they offered us to stay in the nearby temple, for which we could never say a no.  We were pretty inside the rurals of Karnataka and people were little amazed to see us on cycles when the whole world is moving towards motored vehicles. They guided us to the temple and we quickly set up the place for tonights stay. Sid was little scared to sleep under the Banyan tree for an obvious reason, but there wasn’t any other option for him.

Lunch Point

Not less than 5 minutes we are inside the sleeping bag, my phone rings. This call pulled me back from just slipping into the sweet dreams. I hate phones during travel... Grrr